Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I actually watched the movie first before my mom bought the book. The DVD was in a pile of movies at home. My sister acted brave and said she wanted to watch the DVD “Coraline”. And she ended up hiding somewhere in the middle of the movie.

On the 31st of May, when we were having fun in Kidzania, my mom went to the book store and bought some books. “The Apothecary” for me and “Coraline” for my sister. I recognized the book immediately. When we arrived home, I started reading “Coraline”.

Coraline was a story about a girl, maybe around 10 or 11 or 12. After moving to a new house where her family owned a part of it, she found a tiny door in the drawing room. She first found it when it was raining. She couldn’t explore outside, so her father told her to explore the house. The house was really old. Coraline asked her mom to unlock it, only to find it bricked up.

At night, two days after the tiny door was discovered, she found out that the door was suddenly not bricked at all. It was a long corridor, maybe leading to the other part of house where Coraline’s mother predicted: leading to another part of the house not yet sold. But it was not! It led to a world where Coraline finds ‘another mother’ and ‘another father’. They said they had been waiting for Coraline and they gave her treats, love, and affection. But actually, they wanted to keep Coraline forever.

When Coraline escaped, she found out that her parents were missing. So with the help of a stone given by Mrs. Spink and Mrs.Forcible, and a black cat which could talk in the ‘other world’, Coraline played a treasure hunt game with her other mother. Coraline must find her parents and the souls of three children that the other mother had trapped in the other world.

After finding Coraline’s parents and the souls of the children, Coraline set them free. But the horror was not over! The other mother’s hand managed to sneak out in reality and wanted the key that locked the door to the tiny door. With all her bravery and a fake doll party, Coraline managed to drop the hand and the key to a very deep well. After making sure the lid of the well never opened again, all was well.

The story is really scary for me but it is thrilling. I even read the book two times! One this morning and the other, a week ago. It is amazing, and not quite similar to the movie. There are many slight changes which I noticed from the movie and the book.

• In the movie, Coraline has a friend named Wybie, shorted for Wyborn. If you pronounce it, it is like Why Born? Coraline calls it as Why were you born?
• In the book, the love and affection the other mother gives is lasting for only one day. While in the movie, it is three days.
• Before Coraline escapes in the movie, the other mother spins a web trying to trap Coraline.
• There are four wonders in the movie: the garden, the room, Ms Spink and Forcible’s theater and Mr. Bobo’s mouse show, while in the book there are only three wonders. The garden is not there.
• In the book, the man which Coraline’s mother call crazy is Mr. Bobo, while in the movie it is Mr. Bobinsky.

There are many more differences but I can’t note them all down.

Anyways, it’s way a wonderful book (and movie!) 😀